João Almeida left the start of the Tour of Spain on Saturday motivated by a race he had entered with ambitions of winning. The Portuguese cyclist finished the time trial between Lisbon and Oeiras in 10th place, 19 seconds behind the winner, Emirates teammate Brandon McNulty.
In a 12-kilometre race on flat but windy terrain, the good news for João Almeida is that he lost time to only two rivals in the battle for the red jersey, the symbol of leadership. He was 16 seconds behind Belgium’s Wout van Aert (Visma), bronze medallist in the Olympic time trial just three weeks ago, and two seconds behind Primoz Roglič (Bora), the 34-year-old Slovenian who is hoping to win the Vuelta for the fourth time.
This Sunday, on the second of three stages on Portuguese soil, Van Aert has already expressed his desire to take the lead. You can do this by gaining time in the bonuses of the intermediate sprint planned in Alcobaça or by attacking the summit of Batalha, a 4th category climb of 7.1 km with an average gradient of 3.3%, the end of which is about 20 km from the target.
The second stage connects Cascais with Ourém.
The Vuelta continues this Sunday in Portugal, with the first stage coming up. It will be a 194km link between Cascais and Ourém, which will involve traffic restrictions at departure, arrival and along the entire route, namely in Sintra, Mafra, Torres Vedras, Caldas da Rainha, Alcobaça, Batalha or Fátima.
Author: Joao Moniz
Source: CM Jornal
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